


Shino and Sasuke - Blue Thread

by RoeDusk



Series: Tapestry - Prologue [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 20:49:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11216031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoeDusk/pseuds/RoeDusk
Summary: Sasuke knew something about loss even before the Uchiha Massacre.





	1. Loss

Contrary to what the rest of the village believed Sasuke had experienced loss several times before the Massacre. He remembered Grandmother’s funeral, mourning for cousins he’d enjoyed playing with before they never returned home, and remembers Mother mourning the honorary Aunts and Uncles he’d never gotten to meet. It hurt, and he wished it hadn’t had to happen, but he knew that sometimes people died doing their jobs and you couldn’t do anything but make sure their memory was honored.

But while he loved them, because they were family, and he wished they were still there they didn’t teach him the raw rage at death that losing someone close to you did. Losing someone you knew didn’t deserve it, who should have been saved. He learned that from Torune.

Sasuke loved Uncle Shibi, Torune, and Shino like he did Mom and Dad, almost as much as he did Big Brother. When he was old enough to know what a secret was they told him why he could never hug Torune the way he wanted to to cheer the other boy up. A secret even Big Brother didn’t know! So he did what they taught them in school, tried to bury the secret, avoid thinking about it at all. It was hard, but at least trying reminded him he couldn’t say anything so that was good.

The older boy was never too busy to train with him, even when Big Brother was. He couldn’t correct Sasuke’s stance by moving him into place, but he was able to give increasingly more complicated advice to try and help Sasuke make the adjustments himself. Torune liked that Sasuke was careful but not afraid, so Sasuke didn’t mind that the sessions were always harder to get right that way. He liked that Sasuke liked bugs and made Shino happy. Shino was happy that Sasuke liked Torune, liked bugs, and was his friend. And Sasuke was happy that Shino and Torune liked him and always made time for him, and told him whatever he asked about their bugs without getting annoyed.

Uncle Shibi made the best snacks. He even showed Sasuke how bugs helped grow the tiny tomatoes he really liked. Sasuke didn’t know any other adults who liked to play in the dirt with him either, or just lay on the grass and laugh when they wore each other out. So the Aburame Clan compound was just about his favorite place to be, especially when Big Brother was busy.

Then Torune disappeared, snatched from his favorite clearing in the Aburame forrest the way adults had been afraid their kids could be as long as Sasuke could remember. He remembered Grandma, Father, Mother, and many other aunts, uncles, and cousins make sure that if someone he didn’t know tried to take him he was supposed to scream for help as loud as he could and run for the closest family member. Because there were evil people out there who would do terrible things to him if they got him away. But no one had heard Torune scream, and the evil men had _got_ him! Sasuke shuddered, wondering if the snatchers wanted Torune’s eyes too, or if they knew his _secret_. How else would they have been able to snatch him without dying?

But it wasn’t fair! Torune should have been safe, the snatchers shouldn’t have been able to get him! And Sasuke’s Dad was the head of the whole Police, they definitely shouldn’t have been able to get away with it! But nobody could find him, not even a clue, and it ached in a way Sasuke had never known before. He wanted Torune back, he wanted Shino to be happy again. And he wanted the snatchers to run into his Mom when she was mad, he hadn’t thought he would wish that on anyone before!

Then cousin Shisui died, and Sasuke wasn’t supposed to hear his aunts talking about it, but the snatchers had taken his eyes! Sasuke wanted to hide where they couldn’t find him, bring his family with him. But Shino and Uncle Shibi wouldn’t be able to hide with them, they lived on the other side of the village! Sasuke had to get stronger, to protect Shino from the snatchers, and so they could find Torune together. So he let Mom convince him to keep going to school, and he didn’t even argue when his cousins or Uncle Shibi’s friends guarded him on his way there every morning and back and back every night. He was scared and upset and angry, mourning two of his precious people, but he wanted Shino to keep smiling, doing his best to find things to share that cheered the other boy up even slightly. And this pursuit kept his mind off everything else for a while.

Then he returned home to find… _That Man_ , never brother again, had snapped and killed their entire Clan. He could see how they died, every one of them, even if he couldn’t figure out how he’d seen their deaths before he even returned home. It seared into his brain, timeless, and he’d felt something shatter as he tried to understand _why_. Then Uncle Shibi was there, alive and uninjured, and he held Sasuke close, smelling of trees and laundry soap instead of blood. Sasuke couldn’t hear the screams of silence anymore past the humming of the kikaichu that clouded around them, ready to drain _That Man_ if he tried to get closer, then tear him apart. He didn’t remember passing out, but when he woke it was to Shino curled protectively around him and Shibi standing guard.

After that the only thing that kept the nightmares at bay was the hum of the kikaichu in his ear. Whether because he’d fallen asleep on Shino again or because the Aburame Shibi had set to watch him woke theirs to guard him. He would sleep and dream of red beetles instead of blood, rising from the ground in swarms to hunt _That Man_ down before he could hurt anyone. And he didn’t wake up screaming.

 


	2. Care

Shino knew others did not see the world as he did, flickers of life on the edge of some uncommon sense. They didn’t interest him any more than a stray bird interested civilians, not unless they were insects waiting in the wild for him to find.

But his kikaichu were different, he could feel them like he could his arms or legs. Even when they flew away from him they always heeded his calls to come back. They were simpler than his father, who he could feel thinking, sad, or cheerful. Mostly he was tired, and it was harder to tell the difference between that and sadness when he was far away. But seeing Shino always made that spark of happiness appear, the one Shino knew was love.

He’d never felt anything from strangers, who he preferred to watch wordlessly until they went away. But he’d felt the beginnings of something similar with Torune. His brother had been a mix of pain and constant loneliness from his inability to touch anyone. But when Shino would rather play with him than other boys, or wanted to sit with him in his clearing, that always lightened it a little. So Shino kept doing it, wanting to help Torune as much as he could.

Eventually the other boy insisted he try and connect with his classmates, now that Shino was attending the Academy. Shino had no desire to, no one but Sasuke even wanted to talk about insects with him, calling them “gross.” Sasuke’s mother was a friend of his father’s, so they were expected to get along. But his interest seemed honest, so Shino looked at insects with him during lunch and came back home after. He informed Torune that he wanted to spend time with him, rather than others at school, and that Torune felt happier when he did.

His brother froze, denial and truth warring for purchase in his... self. In the end he just asked why Shino believed that, and Shino did his best to explain. Torune listened to it all, considered it seriously, and promised to help him figure it out as best he could.

Three days later Torune was gone, stolen because Shino had told him his secret.

So he didn’t tell anyone else, learned not to wonder about it too much or even experiment outside the safety of their home. His father had more than enough to worry about already, searching for any trace of Torune. Shino wasn’t sure he could keep his mood up enough to fool his father, however. He didn’t like how his father’s mood always dipped a little when he noticed Shino’s sadness.

Sasuke came over more often now, because his mother was getting more and more busy. Sasuke smiled when he saw them and Shino could catch the echo of his excitement. It startled him to find connection where he’d only had one with Torune or his Father, but Sasuke’s smile made him happy, made his father happy. And Torune had liked him. So Shino didn’t lash out at the feeling. Doesn’t try to push him away.

Sasuke wanted to learn how to garden, wanted to know all there was to know about insects. He listened when Shino explained things, rather than get mad at his habit like the other kids did. He listened carefully enough to remember what he was told too, and repeat it back days later when Shino asked him. When Shino got really sad, when he couldn’t break out of worry about Torune, Sasuke would look him in the eye and tell him his father was the head of the Police force, they were looking for Torune every day, just like his mom and Shino’s dad. He promised that if the adults hadn’t found him by the time they were real ninja then they’d go find him themselves.

It… helped. It wasn’t an option Shino had ever considered, that failure might not mean forever. And he knew Sasuke meant it, he could feel it in his self. So Shino threw himself into studying, into training, with Sasuke keeping pace alongside him, determined to graduate as the best they could be. They would join the police force, become a special tracing unit, and find Torune.

Shino’s dad smiled when they told him, and promised he’d allow Shino to join the police when the time came. But he would continue looking in the meantime, because that’s what a shinobi did.

Shino felt stable again, connected to two anchors again, not like before, when he’d lost one and couldn’t always find the other. He had people to hold on to, to be with and beside, and a place to plant his feet with his swarm to protect and guide him.

Then Sasuke’s clan died. All of them, in a single night! Killed by Sasuke’s brother! He’d felt the terror in Sasuke’s self, sharper than he’d ever been afraid before, and it woke him. Unsure if it was still there because it lingered after the dream or if it was true he’d gone to his father, who went to check. His dad returned with Sasuke, broken and sobbing, and the news that the world had gone mad.

Sasuke was brittle now, angry and sad and terrified. But Shino could help. He could make his kikaichu sing to kill the nightmares, and make a promise that when they became ninja they would form a special tracking squad and kill Sasuke’s nightmare, before he could kill again.

The other boy barely smiled anymore, only managing anything close to Shino and his dad. So Shino would do this for him, name himself an enemy of Itachi and anyone else who tried to break Sasuke again. He would be an anchor like Sasuke was for him. He would not abandon his precious ones. For Torune he would wait and remember. For Sasuke he would live and fight, never leave him alone again. It was just that simple.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first part of the series I came up with, because someone on Tumblr had a rand about hos Shino and Sasuke got along better than Sasuke did with anyone else in the whole plot. It made some sense, and... got away from me.


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